Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> History

• Provides a comprehensive introduction to the Pietist theologians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
  
• Demonstrates the influence that Pietism had on the religious, cultural and social life of the time.
  
• Explores the lasting effects Pietism has had on modern theology and modern culture.
  
• Presents both Protestant and Catholic theologians in Puritan England,...

• Provides a comprehensive introduction to the Pietist theologians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
  
• Demonstrates the influence that Pietism had on the religious, cultural and social life of the time.
  
• Explores the lasting effects Pietism has had on modern theology and modern culture.
  
• Presents both Protestant and Catholic theologians in Puritan England,...

The idea of a heretic conjures up many images, from the martyrs prepared to die for their beliefs, through to sects with bizarre practices. This book provides a remarkable insight into the fraught history of heresy, showing how the Church came to insist on orthodoxy when threatened by alternative ideals, exploring the social and...

The idea of a heretic conjures up many images, from the martyrs prepared to die for their beliefs, through to sects with bizarre practices. This book provides a remarkable insight into the fraught history of heresy, showing how the Church came to insist on orthodoxy when threatened by alternative ideals, exploring the social and...

In this fascinating study, John Van Seters makes a compelling case for a new reading of Genesis. According to Van Seters, the book of Genesis represents the prologue to a major literary work, conceived and constructed by a single writer--an intellectual and historian. Van Seters argues that the author was a true historian who wrote history in the tradition of the ancient antiquarian.

This wide-ranging and highly readable introduction focuses on the contemporary fascination with the big questions about God and the supernatural, setting out clearly and fairly what people believe and their reasons for believing it. All the major faiths are covered, along with new and alternative movements, neo-pagan and New Age thought, and spiritualities of human potential and self-enhancement. Offering a wealth of information on key concepts, movements, and thinkers, A Brief Guide to Beliefs will be especially helpful to students of religion or related subjects, and to all who...

This classic textbook, widely used for over two decades, constructs a history of ancient Israel and Judah through a thorough investigation of epigraphical, archaeological, and biblical sources. Approaching biblical history as history, Miller and Hayes examine the political and economic factors that give context to the Israelite monarchy's actions and the biblical writers' accounts. Now updated with the latest research and critical discoveries, including the Tel Dan Inscription, and considering the lively debate surrounding the reliability of biblical accounts, Miller and Hayes's...

In The Division of Christendom, revered historian Hans J. Hillerbrand details the events and ideas of the sixteenth century and contends that the Protestant Reformation must be seen as an interplay of religious, political, and economic forces in which religion played a major role. Hillerbrand tells the fascinating story of the ways in which theological disagreements divided the centuries-old Christian church and the roles that leading characters such as Luther, Zwingli, Anabaptists, and Calvin played in establishing new churches, even as Roman Catholicism continued to develop in its...

Judaism and Christianity both arose in times of empire, with roots in Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. In order to understand these religious movements, we must first understand the history and society of these imperial cultures. In these formative years, wisdom and apocalyptic traditions flourished as two significant religious forms. In Scribes, Visionaries, and the Politics of Second Temple Judea, distinguished New Testament scholar Richard A. Horsley analyzes the function and meaning of these religious movements within their social context, providing essential background...

Since its discovery in the mid-1940s, the Gospel of Thomas has aroused the interest of scholars and general readers alike. Thomas, the Other Gospel provides a clear, comprehensive, nontechnical guide through the scholarly maze of issues surrounding the Coptic text. Nicholas Perrin argues that the Gospel derives not from the era of Jesus or even the apostles but from the late second century CE. Further, contrary to what many scholars believe, he maintains that the Gospel was originally written in Syriac rather than in Greek, and he concludes that the real value of the...

In this book, Klaas Smelik presents a selection of writings from ancient Israel that ranges from tax records to battle accounts. Smelik interprets these writings in light of their historical, social, and biblical contexts.

Women throughout American history have repeatedly been accused of "stepping out of their places" as many have fought for more rewarding roles in the church and society. In this book, Susan Hill Lindley demonstrates that just as religion in the traditional sense has influenced the lives of American women through its institutions, values, and sanctions, so women themselves have had significant effect on the shape of American religion through the years.

Thousands of men and women were executed for incompatible religious views in sixteenth-century Europe. The meaning and significance of those deaths are studied here comparatively for the first time, providing a compelling argument for the importance of martyrdom as both a window onto religious sensibilities and a crucial component in the formation of divergent Christian traditions and identities.

Gregory explores Protestant, Catholic, and Anabaptist martyrs in a sustained fashion, addressing the similarities and differences in their self-understanding. He traces the processes and...

The Catholic Church's claims to spiritual and temporal authority rest on Jesus' promise in the gospels to give Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven. In the sixteenth century, leaders of the German Reformation sought a fundamental transformation of this "power of the keys" as part of their efforts to rid Church and society of alleged clerical abuses. Central to this transformation was a thoroughgoing reform of private confession.

Unlike other Protestants, Lutherans chose not to abolish private confession but to change it to suit their theological convictions and social needs. In a...

A distinctive Christian heresy? A competitor of burgeoning Christianity? A pre-Christian folk religion traceable to "Oriental syncretism"? How do we account for the disparate ideas, writings, and practices that have been placed under the Gnostic rubric? To do so, Karen King says, we must first disentangle modern historiography from the Christian discourse of orthodoxy and heresy that has pervaded--and distorted--the story.

Exciting discoveries of previously unknown ancient writings--especially the forty-six texts found at Nag Hammadi in 1945--are challenging historians of religion to...